Blizzard Entertainment recenty started accepting beta applications for Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. Planned for release "soon" on Mac, Windows, and iPad, the free-to-play virtual card game will allow players to build decks centered around one of the nine Warcraft character classes. Duelists will go head to head in card battles for the chance to win new cards.

Q: What is Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft?A: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is a free-to-play digital collectible strategy card game that anyone can enjoy. Players choose one of nine epic Warcraft® heroes to play as, and then take turns playing cards from their customizable decks. Players are able to cast potent spells, use heroic weapons and abilities, or summon powerful characters to crush their opponent.

Q: Why is Blizzard making Hearthstone?A: We looooooove collectible card games and have been playing them since our Silicon & Synapse days. Creating a digital strategy card game felt like a natural next step for us, so we put together a small team and have been hammering away at Hearthstone for a while now. This is something we’ve wanted to do for a long time, and we’re excited to be working on something different from our other games. Same goes for creating a game for iPad in addition to PC. It’s been a thrill to work on Hearthstone, and we hope everyone has as much fun playing it as we’ve had building it.

Q: Do I need to know anything about card games or Warcraft to play?A: Not at all! We’ve designed Hearthstone so that anyone can get into it, no matter how familiar they are with the Warcraft universe or collectible card games. The game will teach you everything you need to know as you play it.